


Sirius and Remus Brew a Love Potion

by simplysirius



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Feels, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Heavy Angst, M/M, One Shot, Pining, Relationship(s), Remus x Sirius, sirius x remus, wolfstar, wolfstar angst, wolfstar fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-12 11:13:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29009604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/simplysirius/pseuds/simplysirius
Summary: When Remus and Sirius finally learn how to brew amortentia, one of them is surprised by the smell, while the other has known all along.
Relationships: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 1
Kudos: 172





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on Tumblr @simplysirius for daily fics and fan art! I also take requests :)

Remus waited six years to learn how to brew amortentia, and the day had finally arrived.

He already knew what his potion was going to smell like. The yellowed, frayed pages of old books, the covers blanketed by a thin layer of dust. The sweet honey syrup he stirred into his tea every morning and night, tendrils of steam splashing over his cheeks. The open fields of home, with the swaying grasses and flowers, the breath of a new day rustling his hair and warming his skin.

“Alright, last ingredient,” Sirius said, his hand hesitating over the cauldron, about to pour the last vial inside. “Ready to fall in love?”

“Ready,” Remus nodded, preparing to take a deep breath.

Sirius poured the last ingredient into the cauldron and stirred once, twice, three times counterclockwise, his eyes glittering as the liquid slowly bloomed an iridescent pearl. The professor walked around the room, stopping at their table to peer at their potion.

“Excellent,” he commended, smiling at the swirling stars, “now take a whiff. What do you smell?”

Remus leaned in, flaring his nostrils and filling his lungs, more than ready to smell his home. But immediately, everything was all wrong. There were no creased pages, no tea leaves, no pungent flowers. His brain was overwhelmed with notes of ash, tickling his nose like plumes of smoke, and then hints of mint, a fresh breeze to cool the burning sensation in his throat. And then there was a final smell, so powerful and hypnotic that Remus had to sit back on his stool for fear of falling over; freshly polished leather. The kind that’s worn soft with age and love, meticulously cared for and adorned with second hand patches and buttons.

The kind that Sirius Black wore almost every day.

“What do you smell?” Sirius cheered, waiting with baited breath.

Shaking his head in a daze, Remus met Sirius’ eyes for only a moment before flicking down to the table, his cheeks flushed a brilliant red. “I don’t know. You try.”

Sirius sighed, disappointed, but eagerly hung his head over the cauldron, fanning the wisps of steam towards his nose.

He wasn’t sure what to expect. What did he love? Hogwarts, for one. He’d probably smell the castle stones, damp from the rain, and maybe a crackling fire in the common room warming his body. Maybe he’d smell Hogsmeade and the fresh bread from the bakery, the old wood from Olivander’s wand shop.

Somewhere pushed inside the deepest, darkest chamber of his heart, he knew exactly what that potion would smell like.

Sirius wasn’t surprised when the first wave of spilled ink and crinkled paper washed over his face. Then came the saccharine chocolate and the milky tea that permeated throughout their bedroom. And finally came the woodsy musk that clung to every sweater and blanket, mesmerizing for hours after he went to bed.

It was Remus. The amortentia smelled only of Remus and Sirius’ desperate, undying love for his best friend.

Only vaguely aware that Remus was watching him closely, waiting for a reaction, Sirius cleared his throat. “It smells nice. Like butterbeer and our Sunday feasts. Maybe a hint of strawberry, too.”

“You don’t even like strawberries,” Remus said flatly, trying to hide his disappointment that Sirius apparently hadn’t smelled anything out of the ordinary.

“I like the smell, though,” Sirius replied, thinking about Remus’ insistence on only using strawberry lip balm in the winter. “You really didn’t smell anything?”

“Mint,” Remus finally admitted, picking at the grooves in the table with his finger.

Sirius hummed. “Mint, like, mint toothpaste? That’s weird.”

“Mint like mint gum.”

There was a quiet moment between them then, as Sirius leaned back on the stool and felt the pack of gum nudging up against his body from the back pocket of his trousers. Remus stared into the cauldron, wondering why, why, couldn’t he smell his favorite bookshop, wondering what kind of cruel joke it was that he could only smell Sirius, the one thing in this world he couldn’t have.

Reaching into his back pocket, Sirius held the pack of gum out to Remus with a shaking hand. “You can have some, if you want. You just have to ask.”

“No thanks,” Remus declined, his mouth already dry and filled with sandpaper. He didn’t like chewing gum. He liked watching Sirius chew gum, his lips rubbing up and down, his tongue pushing it around his mouth, his cool breath afterwards.

“Hey, you’ll never guess what happened!” James cheered, throwing his arms around Sirius and Remus’ shoulders, pulling them in so close they nearly smashed their heads together. Sirius tried not to notice the way Remus blushed when their hands touched. “Guess what Lily smelled?”

“Your armpits?” Sirius asked, pushing James away.

Ignoring him, James pressed on. “She said she smelled grass, like on the Quidditch field, and broom polish!”

“So she likes flying?” Remus suggested weakly.

“So she likes me,” James announced indignantly. “She keeps looking at me out of the corner of her eye, and every time she turns away all mad that I caught her. Lily’s into me!”

Sirius clapped James on the back, flashing him a smile that was all too bright to be anything but fake. Lily liked James; it may have taken six years, but at last, James finally had his chance. What had Sirius done in six years? Stare at Remus from afar, buy him chocolates and books just to see him smile, wish on every shooting star that Remus might look over at him and decide to kiss him.

“Congratulations, mate,” he grinned, “you’ve got a chance at losing your virginity before you’re ninety now.”

Jabbing him in the ribs, James shushed Sirius, all too aware of Lily glaring at him with her lips pressed together. “What about you two? Anyone falling in love yet?”

Laughing nervously, Remus shook his head. “Not yet.”

Beside him, Sirius shifted on the stool, just enough so he could see Remus’ eyes locked on his.

“Maybe.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Sirius and Remus brew a love potion and realize they like each other, James and Lily plot to get them together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow me on Tumblr @simplysirius for daily fics and fan art! I also take requests :)

“Remus? What are you doing?”

“I think my nose is broken,” he answered, poking and prodding at himself in the mirror. Remus pulled at his nostrils, using his reflection to see inside, frowning when his fingers kept getting in the way.

James shut the bedroom door closed behind him as he sauntered up to Remus, one eyebrow arched. “Your nose looks perfectly fine to me. You’ve got a great schnozzle.”

“Something’s wrong with it,” Remus disagreed, aggressively jabbing his nose with a sharp finger before taking a deep breath. “It’s the amortentia.”

“What about it?”

Remus paused, his hands falling from his face as his gaze dropped to the ground, nervously taking his lip between his teeth. “What did you smell?”

“Lily,” James said proudly. “That flowery perfume she wears, and the silver from her jewelry. Grassy fields, too, but that’s just Quidditch stuff. Why?”

“I smelled mint. And ash,” Remus admitted, like it was the worst thing in the world. Hanging on the peg near his bed was Sirius’ leather jacket, adorned with all the patches and buttons Remus loved so much. “And leather.”

James followed Remus’ eyes to the jacket. “Oh shit.”

Falling face first onto his bed, Remus groaned into the blankets, “what am I supposed to do?”

What was the protocol for potentially falling in love with your best friend? Laugh it off? Pretend it never happened? Walk up to him in the middle of dinner and kiss the hell out of him? The thought made Remus’ head spin. Kissing Sirius. Holy hell.

“I could talk to him?” James suggested, carefully sitting on the edge of the bed.

“Absolutely not.”

“Why?”

Remus’ face surfaced from the sheets. “He’s never going to find out, okay? That’s just the way it has to be.”

“Well that’s boring,” James frowned, pointedly crossing to the other side of the room to dig in his trunk for nothing in particular. The last thing he wanted Remus to see was the devious glint in his eyes as he figured out exactly how to shove him into Sirius’ arms.

“Oh well.”

James and Sirius arrive to dinner early, after some incredibly persistent begging to make sure they got first pick of the freshly baked Yorkshire pudding. Sirius trudged behind James, his feet weighed down by a heart heavy with longing and desperation for a boy he could never have.

“You’ve been awfully quiet today,” James said, settling down at the table. Truth be told, he couldn’t give a damn about the Yorkshire pudding, but now he finally at Sirius alone, for at least a few minutes.

Sirius shrugged. “Just thinking about some stuff.”

James knocked on his head three times with a gentle knuckle. “You’ve actually got a brain in there?”

Batting him away, Sirius glanced over his shoulder left and right, making sure no one else was within earshot. “I have a big problem.”

“Okay.”

“Yesterday when we made amortentia in potions…I smelled Remus. Like, his sweaters and chocolate and parchment. It was all him.”

James’ eyebrows crept up slowly, at first all too entertained at the idea of Sirius having a little crush on Remus, but then, as he realized the gravity of the situation, that Remus liked Sirius and Sirius liked Remus, his jaw dropped and he froze like one of the gargoyles protecting Hogwarts.

Sirius frowned, wishing he could hide his burning cheeks. “I told you it’s a big problem.”

“No,” James said suddenly, shaking off the rust. His plan was going astonishingly well. “I don’t see a problem.”

“You need to clean your glasses then, mate.”

James made a big show of removing his glasses, breathing on the frames, and wiping them off with the sleeve of his robe. Peering through perfectly clear glass, he smirked. “Still don’t see a problem. You have a little crush. So what?”

“James. It’s Remus,” Sirius insisted through clenched teeth.

“You just need to get out more, that’s all,” James said, unbothered. “Look, here’s what we’ll do. I’ll set you up with someone! We’ll make it a nice little date, maybe on our trip to Hogsmeade tomorrow? And the next time you smell amortentia, love will be in the air.”

“I don’t want to go on a date,” Sirius frowned, crossing his arms. That was only partly true. He did want to go on a date; just not with whatever girl James had in mind. He wanted someone taller, someone with rugged skin and warm eyes.

James slung an arm around Sirius, pulling him in close. “It’ll solve all your problems. Trust me.”

Later that night, when Remus and Sirius were climbing the stairs in the common room to go to bed, James yanked Lily away from an intense game of wizard’s chess with Marlene, despite loud cries of protest.

“Hey! Let me go!” When James did, she straightened out her jumper. “If you’re going to gloat about potions again–”

James shushed her. “I need your help.”

“No,” Lily said automatically, turning back to her game. James tugged her.

“Not for me. For Remus. And Sirius.”

Lily arched a single eyebrow, made all too curious by James’ cryptic glare. “You have five minutes. Starting now.”

“Lily, the bakery is over there. I’m starving,” Remus complained, trying to tug Lily back down the narrow Hogsmeade lane. Undeterred, Lily kept a firm grip around Remus’ wrist, digging into the ground and pulling him along.

“No time for chocolate, Lupin,” Lily declared, “we can’t be late.”

Remus huffed. “There’s always time for chocolate. And where are we going, anyways?”

“I told you, I want to take a picture with my new polaroid camera,” she insisted, jingling the camera hanging around her neck with her free hand. Lily would have to thank Dorcas for letting her steal it from her trunk later. 

“There are plenty of nice things to take pictures of in the bakery.”

As they rounded the corner, Remus’ ears perked up, just barely able to hear the trill of a familiar voice over the hustle of the village.

“I’m leaving if no one shows up in two seconds, Potter.”

“Patience is a virtue, Pads.”

“I have no virtues.”

As Remus and Lily left the safety of the village and crept along the dirt paths leading to the pond on the outskirts, they finally came into view. Sirius and James standing awkwardly beside a red and white checkered picnic blanket, a bag of sandwiches and snacks and drinks set in the middle. James with a wide grin covering half his face, arms crossed haughtily on his chest as his eyes flickered from boy to boy. Sirius with a bouquet of flowers in his hands, his lips parting as Remus emerged from the tree line.

“Um,” he stammered, his sweaty palms nearly dropping the flowers. “James? I’m going to kill you.”

“What…?” Remus trailed, his heart crashing around in his chest like a firework. “Lily, what’s going on?”

James and Lily shrugged, slowly falling back towards the village.

“Have fun!” James smiled, hooking his arm through Lily’s and taking off down the path before either boy could hex him to death.

Remus and Sirius blinked, each a shade of bright crimson, and gulped.

“I guess…these are for you,” Sirius said stupidly, holding out the flowers. Daisies and little sunflowers blossomed in the thin wrapping. “James picked them out.”

“He told you, didn’t he?” Remus said flatly. “What I smelled in the amortentia? This is stupid, you don’t have to pretend to go along with this anymore. Just…forget what he said, alright? I lied. It…it was just a joke.”

“I smelled it too,” Sirius called, willing to do anything to stop him from marching back to the village.

Remus stopped in his tracks, his feet coming to an abrupt halt so quickly he nearly tripped and spilled onto the ground. Ever so slowly, he turned back to face Sirius. “What do you mean you smelled it too?”

Sirius held out the flowers again, pressing them into Remus’ chest so he had no choice but to take them. “Tea and ink and chocolate…you. I smelled you.”

It was a strange thing, knowing that the boy he’d loved for six years might actually like him back. Sirius watched Remus’ fingers pick at the stems of the flowers, still unsure, still keeping a healthy distance away, but couldn’t help but notice his eyes sparkling in the bright sun.

“I didn’t know…you liked me,” Remus finally said, peering up through long eyelashes.

“What’s not to like?” Sirius asked before he could stop himself, sheepishly biting his tongue as Remus’ flush grew to the tips of his ears. “I mean…you’re pretty easy to like.” He carefully kept himself from saying love.

Rocking on the balls of his feet, Remus bit his lip. “So…what do we do?”

“Well, there are some perfectly good sandwiches in that bag. I guess…we can eat while we figure this out?” Sirius suggested, his heart dancing thinking about sharing the picnic with Remus. “Now I know why James insisted on chocolate covered strawberries.”

Remus nodded with a hint of a smile tugging on his lips. “We can’t let chocolate covered strawberries go to waste, I suppose.”

Together, they sat on the blanket and distributed the food, laughing nervously when they both reached for the same soda, their hands brushing.

“Do I smell good?” Sirius asked suddenly, his mouth occupied with a bite of his sandwich.

“Do you smell good?”

“Yeah,” he said, “like, the amortentia didn’t smell like my dirty socks or anything, did it?”

Remus shook his head, grinning. “No. You smell good. What about me?”

“The best,” Sirius assured, confidently slowly creeping back into his voice. “I knew you would.”

“You knew you’d smell me?”

Sirius knew he had been caught, but instead of nervously fiddling with his fingers, Remus was smiling, and he let his fingers brush Sirius’ as he leaned back. With his heightened senses, he wondered if Remus could hear his heart echoing in his ears, how fast it was beating in his chest.

“I’ve always known.”


End file.
